Install SAP NetWeaver in openSUSE

Install SAP NetWeaver in openSUSE

Install an SAP NetWeaver system in openSUSE Linux. SAP NetWeaver is the application server for SAP S/4HANA on-premises and for SAP Business Suite systems.

Details

SAP NetWeaver is the application server for SAP S/4HANA on-premises and for SAP Business Suite systems. In this tutorial you will learn to install a SAP NetWeaver system in openSUSE Linux. You can then use this server to explore and complete tutorials requiring an on-prem SAP backend.

Step 1: Download SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP

The SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP system used in this course needs to be installed in a 64 bit Linux Operating System (OS). In case you do not have such an OS, you can follow the tutorial linked in the Prerequisites section above, which explains how to set up openSUSE in a VM.

This tutorial refers to an existing openSUSE installation in a Virtual Machine using Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager (VirtualBox Manager)

Note: Even though it is not the newest release, it is necessary to use SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP in Version 7.50 SP02.

Click on the orange button Trial Version. Fill out the form. You will then receive an email with a download link.

Download all eight archive files sap_netweaver_as_abap_750_sp02_ase_dev_edition.part\<n>.rar to your local machine.

Use any extractor tool (e.g. WinRAR or 7zip for Windows or Unarchiver for Mac OS) to extract the SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP installation files somewhere to your local machine. All files must be stored in the same folder. As this is a multipart archive, you only need to start the extraction process for the first file sap_netweaver_as_abap_750_sp02_ase_dev_edition.part1.rar – the other files will be extracted automatically.

Note: Please check the file size of all parts you have downloaded. Each part file is around 1.5 GB (except for the last part). Also, please check that you have extracted the .rar files correctly. The total size of the extracted folder of the SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP Installation files is around 12+ GB.

Step 2: Replace license file for Sybase ASE database

Since the creation of this tutorial, the license for the ASE database that comes with the SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP 7.50 SP02 has expired. Before you start the installation, it is therefore important that you exchange a file in the SAP NetWeaver installation folder.

Enable Network Access to Linux VM

Select Network and change the following settings in the Adapter 1 tab:

Enable Network Adapter: selected

Attached to: NAT

Click on Advanced, to see the Advanced Network Settings.

Click on the Port Forwarding button.

On the opened Port Forwarding Rules dialog:

Click 6 times the green plus icon to create 6 rows of roles.

Then enter the following Port Forwarding Rules.

Hint: Copy each value entry (e.g. 1. each Name, 2. Protocol, etc.png) then double-click into the table field to get the edit focus and then paste the copied value.

Name

Protocol

Host-IP

Host Port

Guest IP

Guest Port

HTTP

TCP

127.0.0.1

8000

10.0.2.15

8000

HTTPS

TCP

127.0.0.1

44300

10.0.2.15

44300

SAP Cloud Connector

TCP

127.0.0.1

8443

10.0.2.15

8443

SAP GUI

TCP

127.0.0.1

3200

10.0.2.15

3200

ABAP in Eclipse

TCP

127.0.0.1

3300

10.0.2.15

3300

SSH

TCP

127.0.0.1

22

10.0.2.15

22

Click OK to save the entered values.

Click OK to save Network settings.

Set up UUIDD Service

The UUID daemon is used to generate universally unique identifiers (UUIDs). The SAP NetWeaver backend system needs this service to create unique IDs.

Hint: UUIDD installation will only work if the VM has internet access.

In the running Oracle VM VirtualBox open the KDE Application Menu.

Navigate to System | YaST and click the YaST item.

Enter your root password to open YaST Control Center window.

The first list item Software is selected by default.

On the right side click on Software Management from the items list.

On the newly opened YaST2 page do the following:

Enter uuidd string into the search field and click Search.

On the right side select the found uuidd package.

Click Accept to install uuid daemon helper in YaST.

On the Installation Successfully Finished page, click Finish to get back to the YaST Control Center window.

Open the KDE Application Menu.

Navigate to System | Konsole and click on it to open a new terminal window.

Hint: If you right-click on the Konsole item you can choose Add to Favorite to create a shortcut icon in the KDE Application Menu.

In the bash window execute sudo service uuidd status to check if the service is running.

Hint: You may press the middle mouse button or mouse scroll wheel to paste text into the Konsole.

All commands starting with sudo will ask for your root password. (sudo means that the command is executed with root user privileges.)

UUIDD status output should be inactive (dead) as you just installed the service and it is not started yet.

Execute sudo service uuidd start to start the service.

Execute sudo service uuidd status to check if the service is running.

Hint: If you press UP and DOWN keys on your keyboard, you can see the history of commands that you executed in the Konsole before.

The UUIDD status should now be active (running).

Prepare Network Setup

The SAP NetWeaver backend expects the hostname of its system to be called vhcalnplci. We will now change the hostname of the openSUSE system accordingly, as this is more convenient than to reconfigure the SAP NetWeaver backend system.

Open your Oracle VM VirtualBox window.

Open the Konsole and execute command sudo vi /etc/hostname, to open the hostname file with the vi editor, which is a text editor for the terminal window.

Press ESC and i to switch the vi editor to insert mode, in order to change the content of the configuration file /etc/hostname. The text in this file sets the system host name.

Replace the existing hostname linux-n1wt.suse with vhcalnplci.

Hint: Navigate in the vi editor with arrow keys and then use back DEL key to delete the characters.

Press ESC and *:wq (write and quit) to save the changed file and to quit the vi editor.

Hit ENTER key to execute this vi editor command and go back to the Konsole bash window.

Hint: After pressing the ESC the cursor will go to the bottom of the screen at a colon prompt. Write your file by entering :w and quit by entering :q. You can combine these to save and exit by entering :wq.

You now need to restart the openSUSE network adapter to reload the configuration file with the new hostname and to test it.

Execute sudo rcnetwork restart.

Execute hostname and see that the hostname output is vhcalnplci.

You now need to change the openSUSE hosts file. The hosts file translates a hostname to an IP address.

In the opened Konsole, execute command sudo vi /etc/hosts to open the vi editor for hosts file.

Press ESC and i to switch the vi editor again to insert mode.

After the existing 127.0.0.1 entry, add the following new line entry:

10.0.2.15 vhcalnplci vhcalnplci.dummy.nodomain

Hint: Navigate in the vi editor with arrow keys to the place where you want to paste the added entry.

Mount netweaver Installation Folder in Linux VM

To start the installation of the SAP NetWeaver backend system, you need to allow the openSUSE to access the netweaver installation folder which resides in you host operating system (your main Windows / Mac OS) to get access to extracted ABAP installation files.

Execute command ls -l (list directory using a long listing format) to show the contents of the mounted folder. The contents are the extracted SAP NetWeaver installation files to which openSUSE now access to.

Now you have prepared everything for the SAP NetWeaver installation.

Result of Step 3: Your openSUSE Virtual Machine is now ready to install SAP NetWeaver on it. The SAP NetWeaver will be reachable within the Virtual Machine and all necessary services are running.

Step 4: Install SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP on Linux VM

In the previous steps you downloaded, extracted and mounted the installation files for a SAP NetWeaver system to the openSUSE Linux running inside of your local machine. You will now install the system in this virtual machine. Please note that this is a specially prepared and simplified installation of a SAP NetWeaver backend, and that the installation process of a live and productive instance requires more expertise on how to best tweak the system settings.Please also be aware that the RAM settings we allocated in the VM are very minimalistic, so the system might react slower than you would expect it to run, if it were installed properly on a dedicated server.

Inside the mounted netweaver folder execute command ls -l to see that amongst other files and folders the install.sh is available. This is the installation script to start the installation of the SAP NetWeaver system.

Execute chmod +x install.sh to enable the execution of the installer.

Execute sudo ./install.sh to start the installation.

Hit ENTER key when Hit enter to continue message appears.

Hit SPACE key until Do you agree to the above license message comes up.

Read and accept the license agreement and confirm with yes, if you agree to the terms of condition.

When prompted for the OS users password, choose a strong password for your ABAP OS users (Users like npladm). The password should be minimum length 8 characters, contain at least one capital letter and one number; e.g. Appl1ance.

Note: The install script will fail if you choose a password that is too weak.

Installation will start and take about 20 minutes.

If the installation was successful, you should see the following message:

Instance on host vhcalnplci started
Installation of NPL successful

Result of Step 4: You have successfully installed a SAP NetWeaver AS ABAB within your Virtual Machine. This SAP NetWeaver instance comes filled with data for tests and demonstrations.

Step 5: Start SAP NetWeaver AS ABAB

Use already opened Konsole or open a new one ( Application Menu | System | Konsole ).

Execute the following three commands to start and check the installed SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP:

Execute su -l npladm (will ask for SAP NetWeaver AS ABAPsystem password) to switch to NetWeaver Admin user, so that you act in this Konsole as this user and its permissions.

Hint: This user has been created during the ABAP installation in above Step 5 and only this user has the permissions to start, stop and check the status of the installed ABAP on the VM.

Note: The - (or -l) parameter for the su (switch user) command creates a shell environment the same as if you had logged in with that different user. Without the -l parameter, you’re running the sapcontrol command in the shell environment of the current user.

Execute startsap ALL to start the ABAP server (if not already).

Execute sapcontrol -nr 00 -function GetProcessList to check that the processes are running and are all GREEN

Note: As startsap ALL can take some time, repeat the command execution a few times until all four processes (IGS Watchdog, Dispatcher, Gateway, ICM) are GREEN.

Result of Step 5: You have started your local SAP Netweaver instance and all processes are running.

Step 6: Create snapshot of virtual machine

After the installation of the SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP finished successfully, you should create a snapshot to preserve this state as you already did after the Linux installation. You can then always revert to this snapshot VM state, in case your VM image should get broken for whatever reason.

Install SAP GUI Client

In your host OS navigate to the location where you extracted the SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP installation files and open the folder client.

Go to folder /client/SAPGUI4Windows

Right-click on SAP_GUI_7.40_PL1_20150108_1618.exe and choose Run as administrator from context menu to launch the installation wizard.

If you get a Windows security prompt (as you are requesting administrator privileges), you need to confirm User Account Control dialog with OK.

Click through the installation wizard and keep the default values and make sure that SAPGUI 7.40 PL1 checkbox is selected.

The wizard should finish with a success message which you confirm with Close.

Result: The /SAP/FrontEnd/SAPgui/saplogon.exe file inside Windows program files folder has been created to launch SAP Logon application. A shortcut to SAP Frontend is placed in your Windows Start menu.

Add SAP NetWeaver to SAP GUI and Log On

Open the SAP Logon application (also known as SAP GUI) from Windows Start menu.

Add your local SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP installation as new system:

Click New icon from the SAP GUI toolbar to open Create New System Entry wizard.

Select User Specified System entry and click Next.

On the next page enter the following details:

Description : Local NetWeaver

Application Server: 127.0.0.1

Instance Number : 00

System ID: NPL

Click Finish to create a new system entry.

Logon to the new system:

Right-click on the newly created entry Local NetWeaver and click on Log on option of the context menu.

To log on to the system for the first time, use the following credentials:

Client: 001

User: Developer

Password: Appl1ance

Language: EN

Click green Accept icon to log on to the system with the specified credentials.

Click also green Accept icon on the opened Copyright dialog so that the SAP Easy Access entry page of the local SAP NetWeaver system is displayed.

Hint (optional): The Favorites links like Launchpad as you can see in the before opened SAP Easy Access page will only work, if you add the following entry to the hosts file in your host operating system (Windows: open the file C:\\Windows\\System32\\drivers\\etc\\hosts in a text editor with administrator privileges): 127.0.0.1 vhcalnplci vhcalnplci.dummy.nodomain

Result of Step 7: The SAP GUI has been installed and you have logged on to your SAP NetWeaver as user Developer.

Step 7 (Mac OS): Install and set up SAP GUI Client

The SAP GUI (also known as: SAP Logon or SAP Front End) is the front-end application to connect to SAP backend systems like the SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP.

Hint: If you have already a SAP GUI / SAP Logon installed on your computer, you may use it and skip the installation and continue with the next step.

Right-click on the new entry Local NetWeaver and click on Connect option of the context menu.

To log on to the system for the first time, use the following credentials:

Client: 001

User: Developer

Password: Appl1ance

Language: EN

Click green Accept icon to log into the system with the specified credentials.

Click also green Accept icon on the opened Copyright dialog so that the SAP Easy Access entry page of the local SAP NetWeaver system is displayed.

Hint (optional): The Favorites links like Launchpad as you can see in the before opened SAP Easy Access page will only work, if you add the following entry to the hosts file in your host operating system. (Mac OS: open Terminal and type _sudo nano /etc/hosts_): 127.0.0.1 vhcalnplci vhcalnplci.dummy.nodomain

Result of Step 7: The SAP GUI has been installed and you have logged on to your SAP NetWeaver as user Developer.

Step 8: Install SAP system license

To work with the installed local SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP system you have to request a Demo license for free as described in the following steps.

Stopping SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP and closing Virtual Machine

When you are not working on the tutorial, it is recommended to shutdown the openSUSE VM in which the SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP is running.

Note: First reason for this is that the SAP NetWeaver system might take a considerable amount of system resources on your host OS machine. The second reason is that the shutdown and restart with snapshot procedure of the VM with the ABAP system is sometimes the best way to get out of certain SAP NetWeaver related problems (e.g. SAP NetWeaver processes does not result in GREEN status after executing ‘startup ALL’).

Shutdown of the VM should be done in two steps, first stopping the ABAP and secondly closing the VM:

In the running Oracle VM VirtualBox open KDE Application Menu.

Open a Konsole ( System | Konsole ) and execute the following three commands:

Execute su -l npladm (will ask for SAP NetWeaver AS ABAPsystem password) to switch to the NetWeaver Admin user, so that you act in this Konsole as this user and its permissions.

Execute stopsap ALL to stop the ABAP server.

In the running Oracle VM VirtualBox window menu: Open File | Close….

In the opened Close Virtual Machine window select the Power off the machine option.

Hint: With this option the current state will not be preserved and if VM is restarted the last saved snapshot will be taken as system state.

Click OK so that the VM window is closed.

Restore Virtual Machine and start SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP

After you have stopped the ABAP and closed the VM as described in above section, we now describe how you launch the VM, start the SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP there and verify that the system processes are running as they should.

We will describe this startup of the VM from the latest existing snapshot you created.

Hint: Keep in mind that in following tutorials you will be pointed to this How to start a VM section. Then you might already have another latest snapshot that the one after described below.

In VirtualBox Manager restore the latest snapshot:

Select Snapshots button in the upper right corner.

Open the snapshot tree nodes and select the latest node before the Current State node (e.g. ABAP with License Snapshot).

Open context menu on selected node and chose Restore Snapshot.

If the Virtual Box - Question window pops up then:

Deselect checkbox Create a snapshot of current machine state option.

Click Restore.

Result: The state of the selected VM is restored to this snapshot and can be started now.

Select SAP NetWeaver 7.50 SP02 VM node and click Start button to start the new VM. It opens a new window Oracle VM VirtualBox and starts the virtual machine.

Hint: Hit the RETURN key to accept the default menu entries (first Boot from Harddisk and second openSUSE) so that you do not have to wait a few seconds for auto-start.

In the running Oracle VM VirtualBox open KDE Application Menu.

Open a Konsole ( System | Konsole).

Check Network connection:

Execute sudo ifconfig (will ask for root password).

Make sure, that you find inet addr:10.0.2.15 as part of the output result.

Note: If you don’t get this inet addr, then try to execute sudo rcnetwork restart and check again.

Start SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP:

Execute su -l npladm (will ask for SAP NetWeaver AS ABAPsystem password) to switch to NetWeaver Admin user, so that you act in this Konsole as this user and its permissions.

Execute startsap ALL to start the ABAP server.

Execute sapcontrol -nr 00 -function GetProcessList to check that the processes are running and are all GREEN.

Note: As the system start may take some time, you should repeat the command execution of sapcontrol -nr 00 -function GetProcessList a few times, until all four processes (IGS Watchdog, Dispatcher, Gateway, ICM) are GREEN.

Result of Step 10: Your SAP NetWeaver and your Virtual Machine instance have been shut down and restarted from the latest Snapshot correctly. This should be done every time you want to suspend your VM.

You have now successfully installed a SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP 7.50 system, which you may use for evaluation and personal education purposes. There are also a number of other tutorials, which are based on this installation of the server.